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Samsung Series 7 Ultra review: Nice, but you may want to wait for the update

The aluminum Series 7 is a good-looking thin-and-light ultrabook with long battery life, but its processor is now behind a generation. Still, if you can get a good deal on it, it would be worth picking up.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
Joshua Goldman
6 min read

Editors' note: The Samsung Series 7 Ultra has been renamed the Samsung Ativ Book 7.

7.5

Samsung Series 7 Ultra

The Good

The aluminum-bodied <b>Samsung Series 7 Ultra</b> looks and feels great. Excellent battery life; a very nice 1080p touch screen; a comfortable backlit keyboard and a responsive, large clickpad.

The Bad

The Series 7 has two USB 2.0 ports but only one USB 3.0, and, as with most ultrabooks, the battery is nonremovable and there is no optical drive. It has an older processor and integrated graphics.

The Bottom Line

The shiny Samsung Series 7 Ultra has a long battery life and nice design, but its now-older processor gives us pause.

The Samsung Series 7 is a really nice ultrabook, and a few months ago it would have been easy to recommend. That was back before Intel announced its fourth-generation Core i-series processors.

Now, that doesn't all of a sudden make this not worth buying; it is still a solid laptop both in performance and design. And, so far, we're not seeing huge leaps in actual computing performance between the old and new processors. What we are seeing from Intel's new Haswell processors, though, as promised, is a contribution to better battery life. The Series 7 Ultra has excellent battery life already, but we have some hesitation about recommending the current version given the possibility of an updated version that could last even longer thanks to a new processor.

That, and it's currently about $1,000.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Design and features
The Series 7 Ultra looks and feels like a modern notebook. It's clean and uncluttered with nothing more than simple Samsung branding on the brushed aluminum lid. In fact, the whole body is aluminum, so it not only looks nice, but feels strong and sturdy.

Fan vents are hidden behind the screen hinge and there are a couple more on the bottom, but they're enough to keep the Series 7 from getting uncomfortably warm. Like many ultrabooks, it has no optical drive and the battery is nonremovable. However, the entire bottom panel can be taken off should you need to poke around inside.

The system is light enough for a daily commute or carrying around campus, but not so light that you'll forget it's there. If you need something that's as light as possible, consider the Sony Vaio Pro or Apple MacBook Air, though be prepared to spend more money.

Samsung Series 7 Ultra Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 Sony Vaio T13 Acer Aspire S7
CPU: 1.8GHz Intel Core i5-3337U 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U 1.9GHz Intel Core i7-3517U
Memory: 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz 6GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 (32MB shared) Intel HD Graphics 4000 (32MB shared) Intel HD Graphics 4000 (32MB shared) Intel HD Graphics 4000 (128MB shared)
Chipset: Intel HM77 Intel HM77 Intel HM77 Intel HM77
Storage: 128GB SSD 128GB SSD 500GB HDD, 5,400rpm with 32GB SSD 256GB SSD
Screen size: 13.3 13.3 13.3 13.3
Resolution: 1,920x1,080 pixels 1,600x900 pixels 1,366x768 pixels 1,920x1,080 pixels
System/travel weight 3.5 pounds/4.2 pounds 3.5 pounds/4.2 pounds 3.7 pounds/4.6 pounds 2.9 pounds/3.5 pounds
Dimensions (HWD) 0.7 inch by 12.8 inches by 8.8 inches 0.7 inch by 13.1 inches by 8.9 inches 0.8 inch by 12.7 inches by 8.9 inches 0.5 inch by 12.7 inches by 8.8 inches
OS Windows 8 (64-bit) Windows 8 (64-bit) Windows 8 (64-bit) Windows 8 (64-bit)
Price: $1,099.99 $999 $899.99 $1,499.99

The keyboard and clickpad match the silver body. The large, flat keys don't have much travel -- typical for laptops this thin -- but they do have a certain amount of pop that lets you know you've hit them.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The keyboard is backlit and not just around the edges of the keys, but the letters are translucent so those light up, too. This makes the keys easier to see in the dark, but more difficult to read when not lit. The function keys are mapped to things like volume and screen and keyboard brightness, turning on a silent mode that quiets fan noise, and pulling up a settings panel for adjusting the display, audio, power management, clickpad, and wireless and wired network connections. A function lock button lets you tune things without reaching for the Fn key, too.

The clickpad is responsive and has a satisfying click when you press it. If you choose to use it, though, the multitouch gesture support pretty much keeps you from ever having to click. Actions like two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom work well and there's a simple application for turning on and off different commands. Also, despite my best efforts, the palm rejection worked well, so I didn't experience any cursor jumps while typing.

Sarah Tew/CNET

The 1080p display is definitely a highlight. The Series 7 is available with or without a touch screen; the former is glossy, while the latter has a matte finish. I tested the touch screen, which performed flawlessly as I swiped and tapped my way around the Windows 8 interface or moved around windows and files. Off-angle viewing is excellent, with no issues viewing from the top, bottom, or sides.

It gets adequately bright, so that using it outdoors in the sun isn't out of the question, though the glossy screen will reflect everything. Fingerprints clean off easily and really, the screen is so responsive that you barely have to touch it. And, if you want to, you can turn touch off altogether.

Above the screen is a 720p Webcam, which handled mixed indoor lighting very well, and although the image was noisy in low light, it still looked good. The internal mics got the job done for my Skype call tests, too.

Samsung used JBL-branded speakers in the Series 7 Ultra. Located on the bottom toward the front of the laptop, they're small, but they produced clean, clear sound. They lack bass, though, and started to distort a bit when pushed to full volume. If you really want to crank your movies or music, you'll want to connect external speakers or headphones to the headphone and mic jack on the left side.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Also, on the left, you'll find the power input, an Ethernet port (the bottom drops down to accommodate), a USB 3.0 port, and HDMI and Mini VGA outputs. On the right are an SD card slot and two USB 2.0 ports. It's odd that Samsung didn't make the USB ports all USB 3.0 on this $1,000 laptop, but that's how it is. Also, if you're the type to put in an SD card and leave it there, you'll have to be careful with this laptop. The card doesn't go all the way in, so it would be pretty easy to lose or damage the card if you're not careful.

The laptop's wireless features include 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and Intel Wireless Display (WiDi) support.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Performance and battery life
The Series 7 Ultra is available in a couple of configurations. I tested the NP740U3E-A01UB, which includes a third-gen Core i5 processor, integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics, 4GB of memory (expandable to 16GB), and a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD). The combination proved fine for everyday use: streaming movies and music, Web browsing, work tasks, and basic photo and video editing. If you're a student looking for a good general-purpose laptop, this configuration works well.

Graphics performance was the only thing that was slightly unimpressive. Basically, it's fine for video playback and, again, basic photo and video editing, but anything too demanding might feel slow. Though, that could be said about many laptops with integrated graphics. You probably won't want to play more than casual games on it, or, at least, not at the screen's full resolution.

As I mentioned up top, battery life is excellent. In our video playback drain test it lasted 6 hours and 8 minutes. For general use, where the laptop isn't constantly working, you can easily go beyond that, especially with some power management. Plus, Windows 8 combined with the SSD gives a quick boot time of 10 seconds (from off to the Start menu) and it wakes from sleep in just 2 seconds.

Conclusion
The Samsung Series 7 Ultra is a very nice laptop for the average user on the go who want excellent battery life and good looks. Because of its older processor, you might want to wait and see if the price drops further below the $1,000 mark. Or, just wait for Samsung to refresh it with fourth-gen processors.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Samsung Series 7 Ultra
453 

Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Samsung Series 7 Ultra
278 

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Samsung Series 7 Ultra
122 

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Samsung Series 7 Ultra
368 

7.5

Samsung Series 7 Ultra

Score Breakdown

Design 8Features 7Performance 7Battery 8Support 7